Life On The Central Coast

Do you guys make a budget every month? We started doing it a couple of years ago knowing that our retirement would be coming soon and we would have to know how to live within a budget.  We use the Quicken for Mac program and is it ever insightful!! You set your budget and tailer it to meet your own personal needs. As you spend money and assign the money into your categories, the program keeps track of how you are doing within that budget. You can select monthly and by the entire year. One of these days I'll have to make a video explaining how it works for us. Anyway, for us, food kept coming up on our budget overages, meaning, we set the budget for a certain amount and each month, we were going over. Now in the "olden days" we had really gotten used to dining out at night, having several lunches out a week and those luscious coffee creations 4 out of 7 mornings!! No wonder it wasn't balancing. But we had the money then and we didn't even LOOK at what we wer...

A great way to minimize your grocery budget is to have leftovers. I know, I KNOW... that doesn't sound very appetizing... but it CAN be! Last night we had "Breakfast For Dinner" which was corn on the cob, bacon, hash browns and an omelet made with eggs, roasted asparagus, spring onions and cheddar cheese. It was great last night and too much for two people to eat in one night. I've been working my way through my Friday CSA box and decided to work the asparagus and spring onions into the meal. Even while I was making this meal, I was thinking, "How can I use leftovers for this meal to make something totally yummy, inexpensive and make it seem like it WASN'T leftovers. You guys have that problem too? "We don't want to eat that AGAIN...!" Our Friday CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) Box From Rutiz Farm .  Now it's Tuesday and I'll let you in on what I came up with from last nights dinner. We ate up the omelet and gave the fe...

What are you thankful for this week? Oh my GOSH, there are so many things to be thankful for I hope you at least can find a hand full! We are having the BEST weather here on the beach, lots of sunshine and gentle sea breezes. We made it over to our community garden to take out the old and put in the new. Out came the winter kale, collards, turnips, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and spinach. We replaced it with 2 kinds of baby potatoes, tomatoes, shelling peas, scallions, radishes, carrots, strawberries and leeks. We have a few empty spaces that will be planted over the next couple of weeks. And everything is in bloom! Lilacs, Lavender, Wisteria, our berries, Daylilies, fruit trees and more! One of the most interesting things that happened this week was a "magical" call from my  oral surgeon Dr. Janette in San Luis Obispo that I HIGHLY recommend if you are looking for someone. I had a tooth removed last October and it was going to be ...